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Concept of Strain
suday ghosh
September 15, 2020

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Strain is a nondimensional deformation which A at (x, y) and with sides ∆x and ∆y in the
measures the change of relative positions of the parts unstrained position (Fig:1). After strain the
of a body under any cause. In general, in a body element is displaced to the position A0 B 0 C 0 D0
under the influence of external forces, the displace- with coordinates of the point A0 (displaced
ments may consist of a translation, a rotation, and a from A) at (x + ξ, y + η). The coordinates of
distortion. Since a translation and a rotation repre- the point B 0 which is displaced from the point
∂ξ ∂η
sent rigid-body displacements which do not induce B are x + ξ + ∆x + ( ∂x )∆x, y + η + ( ∂x )∆x
0
any strain in the body, they will not be considered and
h D displaced from i D are
here. ∂ξ ∂η
x + ξ + ( ∂y )∆y, y + η + ∆y + ( ∂y )∆y . The pro-
Strain is classified into two kinds viz. normal strain
sh@
∂ξ
jected lengths of A0 B 0 are therefore ∆x + ( ∂x
 
)∆x
and the shearing strain. The ratio of the change in  ∂η 
length to the original length of a straight line ele- in the x-direction and ( ∂x )∆x in the y-direction.
ment is defined as a normal strain or direct strain. The square of the length A0 B 0 is
On the other hand, the shearing strain is expressed 
∂ξ
2 
∂η
2
0 0 2
in terms of the change in angle between two linear (A B ) = ∆x + ∆x + ∆x
∂x ∂x
elements from the unstrained state to the strained
state(Fig:1). The direct strain-component in the x-direction (εxx )s
is defined as
A0 B 0 − AB
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(εxx )s = (1)
AB
where the subscript ( )s indicates that the quantity
applies to the solid case. From Eq (1) the length
A0 B 0 can be written as
A0 B 0 = [1 + (εxx )s ] AB = [1 + (εxx )s ] ∆x (2)
Substituting the expression above into the equation
for (A0 B 0 )2 and dropping higher-order terms, we ob-
tain
∂ξ
suda

(εxx )s =
∂x
Similarly, the normal strain-component in the y-
direction is obtained from the length C 0 D0 which is
∂η
Figure 1: (εyy )s =
∂y
For two-dimensional case a small rectangular The shearing strain (γxy )s at the point A is the
element ABCD with coordinates of the point change of the angle between the length AB and AD.

1
 m
From the projected lengths of A0 B 0 and C 0 D0 we find where w is the velocity component in the z direction.

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that the right angle DAB between the length AB The six quantities above are called the rates of strain
and AD is diminished by the angle components.
(∂η/∂x)∆x (∂ξ/∂y)∆y
(γxy )s = +
∆x (1 + ∂ξ/∂x) ∆y (1 + ∂η/∂y)
After neglecting higher-order terms, we have
∂η ∂ξ
(γxy )s = + (3)
∂x ∂y

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or
 
(γxy )s 1 ∂η ∂ξ
(εxy )s = = +
2 2 ∂x ∂y
It is important to note that the strains have the
nature of a change in displacement in a given unit
length in a given direction. Hence strain is a ten-
sor of order 2.
In elasticity we are interested in actual displacement
in a unit length, i.e., ∆ξ, ∆η. In a fluid there is,
sh@
by definition, no resistance to deformation but only
to the time rate of deformation. Hence in fluid dy-
namics the rate of change of strain with time (rate
of strain) will be used in place of strain in elasticity.
The rate of strain in fluid dynamics are,
   
∂ ∂ξ ∂ ∂ξ ∂u
εxx = = = (4)
∂t ∂x ∂x ∂t ∂x
 
∂ ∂η ∂v
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εyy = = (5)
∂t ∂y ∂y
 
∂ ∂η ∂ξ ∂v ∂u
γxy = + = + (6)
∂t ∂x ∂y ∂x ∂y
where u and v are the fluid velocities in the x and y
directions respectively.
The rates of strain components in the general
three-dimensional case can be obtained in a similar
manner. They are
suda

∂u ∂v ∂w
εxx = , εyy = , εzz = (7)
∂x ∂y ∂z
∂v ∂u
γxy = + = γyx (8)
∂x ∂y
∂v ∂w
γyz = + = γzy (9)
∂z ∂y
∂w ∂u
γzx = + = γxz (10)
∂x ∂z